About this course

Entry requirements

Successful completion of a Masters course with an overall classification of Merit or higher, or its overseas equivalent, with an element of research training, is a prerequisite for entry to a PhD. A research proposal must be included with the formal application materials.

The University requires you to reside within a commutable distance from Manchester during your time as a registered student, unless you are on approved fieldwork/a formal placement or are on a period of Submission pending. This is to ensure that you are able to meet attendance expectations and participate in wider research activities within your discipline area and/or School. Should you be unable to do this at any point during your programme, a formal case must be made to the Faculty office, together with the full support of your supervisor(s). The University reserves the right to reject such a request where it is considered that your residency could have a detrimental impact on the progression and engagement of your studies.

Months of entry

January, September, July

Course content

The Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies (CTIS) has the largest concentration of translation studies specialists in the country. It attracts visiting scholars and postgraduate students from a wide range of countries and backgrounds. By collaborating with experts elsewhere in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, in fields such as literary studies, linguistics, intellectual, social and cultural history and theory, CTIS provides unique opportunities - particularly at PhD level - for postgraduates in translation studies, both in core areas of the discipline and at its interdisciplinary cutting edge. In the 2014 REF, Modern Languages and Linguistics at Manchester, the unit of assessment that includes Translation and Intercultural Studies, had more than 70% of research outputs rated at 4* (world leading)/3* (internationally excellent). These results place Modern Languages and Linguistics at Manchester at a highly impressive 3rd out of 57 submissions, nationally, based on research power (calculated by 4* and 3* times number of staff submitted).

CTIS provides an excellent environment for research, organising regular scholarly events . These include a series of weekly seminars, which attract a large national audience of researchers, students and professional translators. The CTIS seminars form an important part of students' initiation into scholarly research, and offer students valuable opportunities for informal contact with leading academics. The Centre also organises two half-days of specialist research training for doctoral students every year. Recent international conferences and symposia which CTIS has hosted and/or co-organized include Research Models in Translation Studies II (Manchester, 2011), Citizen Media: New Mediations of Civic Engagement (Manchester, 2013), New Perspectives on Translation: Insights into the Performative and Cognitive Work of Translators (Manchester, 2014), Researching Translation in the Context of Popular Culture: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives (Manchester, 2015), `The Only Thing Worth Globalizing Is Dissent': Translation and the Many Languages of Resistance (Cairo, 2015 - AHRC-funded), The Cultural Politics of Translation International Conference (Cairo, 2015 - Supported by the British Academy).

Fees and funding

UK students

£4,260

International students

£18,000

The School offers a limited number of bursaries and studentships on a competitive basis, details of which can be found via the links below.

Please note that whilst we do not have closing dates for programme applications, all funding competitions have a specified deadline for submitting the funding application form and a separate (earlier) deadline for submitting the online programme application form, both of which will be stated in the funding competition details below: